PSWSFA Youth and Ladies Tournament

The Youth and Ladies Tournament was held this past week. The Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman’s Association holds this event each summer when the children are out of school. The tournament runs through two weekends to give us the best chance to fish during calm seas.

With hundreds of participants and thousands in payouts, the Flounder Bowl is our largest event each year but it is the Youth and Ladies Tournament that is out favorite. We spend a long week fishing with our wives, children, neighbors and friends. The competitors do not have to be members of the PSWSFA; they just have to be women and children. The targeted species are flounder and croaker.

The event culminates with a picnic and awards ceremony held at Dare Marina and Yacht Sales. It is always summertime hot but Dare Marina treats us well by setting up tents, umbrellas and large fans. The menu this year was hamburgers, hotdogs, barbeque, and Popsicles for dessert.

The event is free; there are no registration fees. The awards and food and drink are all provided by the PSWSFA. The prizes are typically gift certificates to the mall for the ladies. The children usually receive gift certificates to one of our tackle shop club sponsors.

From personal experience, the tackle shop certificates often are exchanged for cash with dad. Dad goes to the tackle shop and the child and mom head to the mall. I do not think that is going to happen with this batch of youngsters. We have some very serious young anglers in our area.

Matt Rinck bought his 5-year-old son, Baylor, a small cast net so that he would have something to play with while Matt tried to cast net some live bait for flounder. After several fruitless hours, Matt was ready to quit. Baylor held up his hand to stop his dad and said, “Dad, you just have to be patient”. They were and the Rinck family caught some impressive flounder.

Then there is 9-year-old Hayden Head. He was fishing with the Hatok family. They also got into some big flounder. Hayden caught an 8-pound doormat. After that, he would hook a fish and hand the rod off to another child, emulating his charter captain dad.

The Winners

Youth Croaker

1st: Jackson Stratton: age 5: 1.29 pounds
2nd: Spencer Elford: age 9: 1.125 pounds
3rd: Hayden Head: age 9: 1.06 pounds

Youth Flounder

1st: Hayden Head: age 9: 8 pounds
2nd: Baylor Rinck: age 5: 7 pounds
3rd: Madeline Hatok: age 6: 5.5 pounds

Lady Croaker

1st: Kay Uhler: 1 lb 3 oz
2nd: Amy Blow: 1 lb 2 oz
3rd: Wendy Elford: .9 lb

Lady Flounder

1st: Angie Rinck: 7.8 pounds
2nd: Amy Hatok: 6 pounds
3rd: Amy Blow: 4.58 pounds

Special thanks go out to Capt. JT Hale, our tournament director, for organizing this event and to Steve and Cindy Martin for feeding us.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.